The Wars Of The Jews

Or

The History Of The
Destruction Of Jerusalem

Book VII

CHAPTER 1.

HOW THE ENTIRE CITY OF JERUSALEM WAS DEMOLISHED, EXCEPTING
THREE TOWERS; AND HOW TITUS COMMENDED HIS SOLDIERS IN A SPEECH MADE TO
THEM, AND DISTRIBUTED REWARDS TO THEM AND THEN DISMISSED MANY OF THEM.

1. NOW as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder,
because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, (for they
would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done,)
Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple,
but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest
eminency; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of
the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in
order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison, as were the
towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city
it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but
for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground
by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing
to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. This
was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for
innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame
among all mankind. (1)

2. But Caesar resolved to leave there, as a guard, the tenth legion,
with certain troops of horsemen, and companies of footmen. So, having entirely
completed this war, he was desirous to commend his whole army, on account
of the great exploits they had performed, and to bestow proper rewards
on such as had signalized themselves therein. He had therefore a great
tribunal made for him in the midst of the place where he had formerly encamped,
and stood upon it with his principal commanders about him, and spake so
as to be heard by the whole arrmy in the manner following: That he returned
them abundance of thanks for their good-will which they had showed to him:
he commended them for that ready obedience they had exhibited in this whole
war, which obedience had appeared in the many and great dangers which they
had courageously undergone; as also for that courage they had shown, and
had thereby augmented of themselves their country's power, and had made
it evident to all men, that neither the multitude of their enemies, nor
the strength of their places, nor the largeness of their cities, nor the
rash boldness and brutish rage of their antagonists, were sufficient at
any time to get clear of the Roman valor, although some of them may have
fortune in many respects on their side. He said further, that it was but
reasonable for them to put an end to this war, now it had lasted so long,
for that they had nothing better to wish for when they entered into it;
and that this happened more favorably for them, and more for their glory,
that all the Romans had willingly accepted of those for their governors,
and the curators of their dominions, whom they had chosen for them, and
had sent into their own country for that purpose, which still continued
under the management of those whom they had pitched on, and were thankful
to them for pitching upon them. That accordingly, although he did both
admire and tenderly regard them all, because he knew that every one of
them had gone as cheerfully about their work as their abilities and opportunities
would give them leave; yet, he said, that he would immediately bestow rewards
and dignities on those that had fought the most bravely, and with greater
force, and had signalized their conduct in the most glorious manner, and
had made his army more famous by their noble exploits; and that no one
who had been willing to take more pains than another should miss of a just
retribution for the same; for that he had been exceeding careful about
this matter, and that the more, because he had much rather reward the virtues
of his fellow soldiers than punish such as had offended.

3. Hereupon Titus ordered those whose business it was to read the list
of all that had performed great exploits in this war, whom he called to
him by their names, and commended them before the company, and rejoiced
in them in the same manner as a man would have rejoiced in his own exploits.
He also put on their heads crowns of gold, and golden ornaments about their
necks, and gave them long spears of gold,. and ensigns that were made of
silver, and removed every one of them to a higher rank; and besides this,
he plentifully distributed among them, out of the spoils, and the other
prey they had taken, silver, and gold, and garments. So when they had all
these honors bestowed on them, according to his own appointment made to
every one, and he had wished all sorts of happiness to the whole army,
he came down, among the great acclamations which were made to him, and
then betook himself to offer thank-offerings [to the gods], and at once
sacrificed a vast number of oxen, that stood ready at the altars, and distributed
them among the army to feast on. And when he had staid three days among
the principal commanders, and so long feasted with them, he sent away the
rest of his army to the several places where they would be every one best
situated; but permitted the tenth legion to stay, as a guard at Jerusalem,
and did not send them away beyond Euphrates, where they had been before.
And as he remembered that the twelfth legion had given way to the Jews,
under Cestius their general, he expelled them out of all Syria, for they
had lain formerly at Raphanea, and sent them away to a place called Meletine,
near Euphrates, which is in the limits of Armenia and Cappadocia; he also
thought fit that two of the legions should stay with him till he should
go to Egypt. He then went down with his army to that Cesarea which lay
by the sea-side, and there laid up the rest of his spoils in great quantities,
and gave order that the captives should he kept there; for the winter season
hindered him then from sailing into Italy.

CHAPTER 2.

HOW TITUS EXHIBITED ALL SORTS OF SHOWS AT CESAREA PHILIPPI.
CONCERNING SIMON THE TYRANT HOW HE WAS TAKEN, AND RESERVED FOR THE TRIUMPH.

1. NOW at the same time that Titus Caesar lay at the siege of Jerusalem,
did Vespasian go on board a merchantship and sailed from Alexandria to
Rhodes; whence he sailed away ,in ships with three rows of oars; and as
he touched at several cities that lay in his road, he was joyfully received
by them all, and so passed over from Ionia into Greece; whence he set sail
from Corcyra to the promontory of Iapyx, whence he took his journey by
land. But as for Titus, he marched from that Cesarea which lay by the sea-side,
and came to that which is named Cesarea Philippi, and staid there a considerable
time, and exhibited all sorts of shows there. And here a great number of
the captives were destroyed, some being thrown to wild beasts, and others
in multitudes forced to kill one another, as if they were their enemies.
And here it was that Titus was informed of the seizure of Simon the son
of Gioras, which was made after the manner following: This Simon, during
the siege of Jerusalem, was in the upper city; but when the Roman army
was gotten within the walls, and were laying the city waste, he then took
the most faithful of his friends with him, and among them some that were
stone-cutters, with those iron tools which belonged to their occupation,
and as great a quantity of provisions as would suffice them for a long
time, and let himself and all them down into a certain subterraneous cavern
that was not visible above ground. Now, so far as had been digged of old,
they went onward along it without disturbance; but where they met with
solid earth, they dug a mine under ground, and this in hopes that they
should be able to proceed so far as to rise from under ground in a safe
place, and by that means escape. But when they came to make the experiment,
they were disappointed of their hope; for the miners could make but small
progress, and that with difficulty also; insomuch that their provisions,
though they distributed them by measure, began to fail them. And now Simon,
thinking he might be able to astonish and elude the Romans, put on a white
frock, and buttoned upon him a purple cloak, and appeared out of the ground
in the place where the temple had formerly been. At the first, indeed,
those that saw him were greatly astonished, and stood still where they
were; but afterward they came nearer to him, and asked him who he was.
Now Simon would not tell them, but bid them call for their captain; and
when they ran to call him, Terentius Rufus (2)
who was left to command the army there, came to Simon, and learned of him
the whole truth, and kept him in bonds, and let Caesar know that he was
taken. Thus did God bring this man to be punished for what bitter and savage
tyranny he had exercised against his countrymen by those who were his worst
enemies; and this while he was not subdued by violence, but voluntarily
delivered himself up to them to be punished, and that on the very same
account that he had laid false accusations against many Jews, as if they
were falling away to the Romans, and had barbarously slain them for wicked
actions do not escape the Divine anger, nor is justice too weak to punish
offenders, but in time overtakes those that transgress its laws, and inflicts
its punishments upon the wicked in a manner, so much more severe, as they
expected to escape it on account of their not being punished immediately.
(3) Simon
was made sensible of this by falling under the indignation of the Romans.
This rise of his out of the ground did also occasion the discovery of a
great number of others Of the seditious at that time, who had hidden themselves
under ground. But for Simon, he was brought to Caesar in bonds, when he
was come back to that Cesarea which was on the seaside, who gave orders
that he should be kept against that triumph which he was to celebrate at
Rome upon this occasion.

CHAPTER 3.

HOW TITUS UPON THE CELEBRATION OF HIS BROTHERS AND FATHERS
BIRTHDAYS HAD MANY OF THE JEWS SLAIN. CONCERNING THE DANGER THE JEWS WERE
IN AT ANTIOCH, BY MEANS OF THE TRANSGRESSION AND IMPIETY OF ONE ANTIOCHUS,
A JEW.

1. WHILE Titus was at Cesarea, he solemnized the birthday of his brother
Domitian] after a splendid manner, and inflicted a great deal of the punishment
intended for the Jews in honor of him; for the number of those that were
now slain in fighting with the beasts, and were burnt, and fought with
one another, exceeded two thousand five hundred. Yet did all this seem
to the Romans, when they were thus destroyed ten thousand several ways,
to be a punishment beneath their deserts. After this Caesar came to Berytus,
(4) which
is a city of Phoenicia, and a Roman colony, and staid there a longer time,
and exhibited a still more pompous solemnity about his father's birthday,
both in the magnificence of the shows, and in the other vast expenses he
was at in his devices thereto belonging; so that a great multitude of the
captives were here destroyed after the same manner as before.

2. It happened also about this time, that the Jews who remained at Antioch
were under accusations, and in danger of perishing, from the disturbances
that were raised against them by the Antiochians; and this both on account
of the slanders spread abroad at this time against them, and on account
of what pranks they had played not long before; which I am obliged to describe
without fail, though briefly, that I may the better connect my narration
of future actions with those that went before.

3. For as the Jewish nation is widely dispersed over all the habitable
earth among its inhabitants, so it is very much intermingled with Syria
by reason of its neighborhood, and had the greatest multitudes in Antioch
by reason of the largeness of the city, wherein the kings, after Antiochus,
had afforded them a habitation with the most undisturbed tranquillity;
for though Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, laid Jerusalem waste, and
spoiled the temple, yet did those that succeeded him in the kingdom restore
all the donations that were made of brass to the Jews of Antioch, and dedicated
them to their synagogue, and granted them the enjoyment of equal privileges
of citizens with the Greeks themselves; and as the succeeding kings treated
them after the same manner, they both multiplied to a great number, and
adorned their temple gloriously by fine ornaments, and with great magnificence,
in the use of what had been given them. They also made proselytes of a
great many of the Greeks perpetually, and thereby after a sort brought
them to be a portion of their own body. But about this time when the present
war began, and Vespasian was newly sailed to Syria, and all men had taken
up a great hatred against the Jews, then it was that a certain person,
whose name was Antiochus, being one of the Jewish nation, and greatly respected
on account of his father, who was governor of the Jews at Antioch (5)
came upon the theater at a time when the people of Antioch were assembled
together, and became an informer against his father, and accused both him
and others that they had resolved to burn the whole city in one night;
he also delivered up to them some Jews that were foreigners, as partners
in their resolutions. When the people heard this, they could not refrain
their passion, but commanded that those who were delivered up to them should
have fire brought to burn them, who were accordingly all burnt upon the
theater immediately. They did also fall violently upon the multitude of
the Jews, as supposing that by punishing them suddenly they should save
their own city. As for Antiochus, he aggravated the rage they were in,
and thought to give them a demonstration of his own conversion, arm of
his hatred of the Jewish customs, by sacrificing after the manner of the
Greeks; he persuaded the rest also to compel them to do the same, because
they would by that means discover who they were that had plotted against
them, since they would not do so; and when the people of Antioch tried
the experiment, some few complied, but those that would not do so were
slain. As for Ailtiochus himself, he obtained soldiers from the Roman commander,
and became a severe master over his own citizens, not permitting them to
rest on the seventh day, but forcing them to do all that they usually did
on other days; and to that degree of distress did he reduce them in this
matter, that the rest of the seventh day was dissolved not only at Antioch,
but the same thing which took thence its rise was done in other cities
also, in like manner, for some small time.

4. Now, after these misfortunes had happened to the Jews at Antioch,
a second calamity befell them, the description of which when we were going
about we premised the account foregoing; for upon this accident, whereby
the four-square market-place was burnt down, as well as the archives, and
the place where the public records were preserved, and the royal palaces,
(and it was not without difficulty that the fire was then put a stop to,
which was likely, by the fury wherewith it was carried along, to have gone
over the whole city,) Antiochus accused the Jews as the occasion of all
the mischief that was done. Now this induced the people of Antioch, who
were now under the immediate persuasion, by reason of the disorder they
were in, that this calumny was true, and would have been under the same
persuasion, even though they had not borne an ill-will at the Jews before,
to believe this man's accusation, especially when they considered what
had been done before, and this to such a degree, that they all fell violently
upon those that were accused, and this, like madmen, in a very furious
rage also, even as if they had seen the Jews in a manner setting fire themselves
to the city; nor was it without difficulty that one Cneius Collegas, the
legate, could prevail with them to permit the affairs to be laid before
Caesar; for as to Cesennius Petus, the president of Syria, Vespasian had
already sent him away; and so it happened that he was not yet come back
thither. But when Collegas had made a careful inquiry into the matter,
he found out the truth, and that not one of those Jews that were accused
by Antiochus had any hand in it, but that all was done by some vile persons
greatly in debt, who supposed that if they could once set fire to the market-place,
and burn the public records, they should have no further demands made upon
them. So the Jews were under great disorder and terror, in the uncertain
expectations of what would be the upshot of these accusations against them.

CHAPTER 4.

HOW VESPASIAN WAS RECEIVED AT ROME; AS ALSO HOW THE GERMANS
REVOLTED FROM THE ROMANS, BUT WERE SUBDUED. THAT THE SARMATIANS OVERRAN
MYSIA, BUT WERE COMPELLED TO RETIRE TO THEIR OWN COUNTRY AGAIN.

1. AND now Titus Caesar, upon the news that was brought him concerning
his father, that

his coming was much desired by all the Italian cities, and that Rome
especially received him with great alacrity and splendor, betook himself
to rejoicing and pleasures to a great degree, as now freed from the solicitude
he had been under, after the most agreeable manner. For all men that were
in Italy showed their respects to him in their minds before he came thither,
as if he were already come, as esteeming the very expectation they had
of him to be his real presence, on account of the great desires they had
to see him, and because the good-will they bore him was entirely free and
unconstrained; for it was, desirable thing to the senate, who well remembered
the calamities they had undergone in the late changes of their governors,
to receive a governor who was adorned with the gravity of old age, and
with the highest skill in the actions of war, whose advancement would be,
as they knew, for nothing else but for the preservation of those that were
to be governed. Moreover, the people had been so harassed by their civil
miseries, that they were still more earnest for his coming immediately,
as supposing they should then be firmly delivered from their calamities,
and believed they should then recover their secure tranquillity and prosperity;
and for the soldiery, they had the principal regard to him, for they were
chiefly apprized of his great exploits in war; and since they had experienced
the want of skill and want of courage in other commanders, they were very
desirous to be free from that great shame they had undergone by their means,
and heartily wished to receive such a prince as might be a security and
an ornament to them. And as this good-will to Vespasian was universal,
those that enjoyed any remarkable dignities could not have patience enough
to stay in Rome, but made haste to meet him at a very great distance from
it; nay, indeed, none of the rest could endure the delay of seeing him,
but did all pour out of the city in such crowds, and were so universally
possessed with the opinion that it was easier and better for them to go
out than to stay there, that this was the very first time that the city
joyfully perceived itself almost empty of its citizens; for those that
staid within were fewer than those that went out. But as soon as the news
was come that he was hard by, and those that had met him at first related
with what good humor he received every one that came to him, then it was
that the whole multitude that had remained in the city, with their wives
and children, came into the road, and waited for him there; and for those
whom he passed by, they made all sorts of acclamations, on account of the
joy they had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance, and styled
him their Benefactor and Savior, and the only person who was worthy to
be ruler of the city of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, full
of garlands and sweet odors; nor was it easy for him to come to the royal
palace, for the multitude of the people that stood about him, where yet
at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiving to his household gods
for his safe return to the city. The multitude did also betake themselves
to feasting; which feasts and drink-offerings they celebrated by their
tribes, and their families, and their neighborhoods, and still prayed God
to grant that Vespasian, his sons, and all their posterity, might continue
in the Roman government for a very long time, and that his dominion might
be preserved from all opposition. And this was the manner in which Rome
so joyfully received Vespasian, and thence grew immediately into a state
of great prosperity.

2. But before this time, and while Vespasian was about Alexandria, and
Titus was lying at the siege of Jerusalem, a great multitude of the Germans
were in commotion, and tended to rebellion; and as the Gauls in their neighborhood
joined with them, they conspired together, and had thereby great hopes
of success, and that they should free themselves from the dominion of the
Romans. The motives that induced the Germans to this attempt for a revolt,
and for beginning the war, were these: In the first place, the nature [of
the people], which was destitute of just reasonings, and ready to throw
themselves rashly into danger, upon small hopes; in the next place, the
hatred they bore to those that were their governors, while their nation
had never been conscious of subjection to any but to the Romans, and that
by compulsion only. Besides these motives, it was the opportunity that
now offered itself, which above all the rest prevailed with them so to
do; for when they saw the Roman government in a great internal disorder,
by the continual changes of its rulers, and understood that every part
of the habitable earth under them was in an unsettled and tottering condition,
they thought this was the best opportunity that couldd afford itself for
themselves to make a sedition, when the state of the Romans was so ill.
Classicus (6)
also, and Vitellius, two of their commanders, puffed them up with such
hopes. These had for a long time been openly desirous of such an innovation,
and were induced by the present opportunity to venture upon the declaration
of their sentiments; the multitude was also ready; and when these men told
them of what they intended to attempt, that news was gladly received by
them. So when a great part of the Germans had agreed to rebel, and the
rest were no better disposed, Vespasian, as guided by Divine Providence,
sent letters to Petilius Cerealis, who had formerly had the command of
Germany, whereby he declared him to have the dignity of consul, and commanded
him to take upon him the government of Britain; so he went whither he was
ordered to go, and when he was informed of the revolt of the Germans, he
fell upon them as soon as they were gotten together, and put his army in
battle-array, and slew a great number of them in the fight, and forced
them to leave off their madness, and to grow wiser; nay, had he not fallen
thus suddenly upon them on the place, it had not been long ere they would
however have been brought to punishment; for as soon as ever the news of
their revolt was come to Rome, and Caesar Domitian was made acquainted
with it, he made no delay, even at that his age, when he was exceeding
young, but undertook this weighty affair. He had a courageous mind from
his father, and had made greater improvements than belonged to such an
age: accordingly he marched against the barbarians immediately; whereupon
their hearts failed them at the very rumor of his approach, and they submitted
themselves to him with fear, and thought it a happy thing that they were
brought under their old yoke again without suffering any further mischiefs.
When therefore Domitian had settled all the affairs of Gaul in such good
order, that it would not be easily put into disorder any more, he returned
to Rome with honor and glory, as having performed such exploits as were
above his own age, but worthy of so great a father.

3. At the very same time with the forementioned revolt of the Germans
did the bold attempt of the Scythians against the Romans occur; for those
Scythians who are called Sarmatians, being a very numerous people, transported
themselves over the Danube into Mysia, without being perceived; after which,
by their violence, and entirely unexpected assault, they slew a great many
of the Romans that guarded the frontiers; and as the consular legate Fonteius
Agrippa came to meet them, and fought courageously against them, he was
slain by them. They then overran all the region that had been subject to
him, tearing and rending every thing that fell in their way. But when Vespasian
was informed of what had happened, and how Mysia was laid waste, he sent
away Rubrius Gallus to punish these Sarmatians; by whose means many of
them perished in the battles he fought against them, and that part which
escaped fled with fear to their own country. So when this general had put
an end to the war, he provided for the future security of the country also;
for he placed more and more numerous garrisons in the place, till he made
it altogether impossible for the barbarians to pass over the river any
more. And thus had this war in Mysia a sudden conclusion.

CHAPTER V.

CONCERNING THE SABBATIC RIVER WHICH TITUS SAW AS HE WAS JOURNEYING
THROUGH SYRIA; AND HOW THE PEOPLE OF ANTIOCH CAME WITH A PETITION TO TITUS
AGAINST THE JEWS BUT WERE REJECTED BY HIM; AS ALSO CONCERNING TITUS'S AND
VESPASIAN'S TRIUMPH.

1. NOW Titus Caesar tarried some time at Berytus, as we told you before.
He thence removed, and exhibited magnificent shows in all those cities
of Syria through which he went, and made use of the captive Jews as public
instances of the destruction of that nation. He then saw a river as he
went along, of such a nature as deserves to be recorded in history; it
runs in the middle between Arcea, belonging to Agrippa's kingdom, and Raphanea.
It hath somewhat very peculiar in it; for when it runs, its current is
strong, and has plenty of water; after which its springs fail for six days
together, and leave its channel dry, as any one may see; after which days
it runs on the seventh day as it did before, and as though it had undergone
no change at all; it hath also been observed to keep this order perpetually
and exactly; whence it is that they call it the Sabbatic River (7)
that name being taken from the sacred seventh day among the Jews.

2. But when the people of Antioch were informed that Titus was approaching,
they were so glad at it, that they could not keep within their walls, but
hasted away to give him the meeting; nay, they proceeded as far as thirty
furlongs, and more, with that intention. These were not the men only, but
a multitude of women also with their children did the same; and when they
saw him coming up to them, they stood on both sides of the way, and stretched
out their right hands, saluting him, and making all sorts of acclamations
to him, and turned back together with him. They also, among all the acclamations
they made to him, besought him all the way they went to eject the Jews
out of their city; yet did not Titus at all yield to this their petition,
but gave them the bare hearing of it quietly. However, the Jews were in
a great deal of terrible fear, under the uncertainty they were in what
his opinion was, and what he would do to them. For Titus did not stay at
Antioch, but continued his progress immediately to Zeugma, which lies upon
the Euphrates, whither came to him messengers from Vologeses king of Parthia,
and brought him a crown of gold upon the victory he had gained over the
Jews; which he accepted of, and feasted the king's messengers, and then
came back to Antioch. And when the senate and people of Antioch earnestly
entreated him to come upon their theater, where their whole multitude was
assembled, and expected him, he complied with great humanity; but when
they pressed him with much earnestness, and continually begged of him that
he would eject the Jews out of their city, he gave them this very pertinent
answer: How can this be done, since that country of theirs, whither the
Jews must be obliged then to retire, is destroyed, and no place will receive
them besides?" Whereupon the people of Antioch, when they had failed
of success in this their first request, made him a second; for they desired
that he would order those tables of brass to be removed on which the Jews'
privileges were engraven. However, Titus would not grant that neither,
but permitted the Jews of Antioch to continue to enjoy the very same privileges
in that city which they had before, and then departed for Egypt; and as
he came to Jerusalem in his progress, and compared the melancholy condition
he saw it then in, with the ancient glory of the city, and called to mind
the greatness of its present ruins, as well as its ancient splendor, he
could not but pity the destruction of the city, so far was he from boasting
that so great and goodly a city as that was had been by him taken by force;
nay, he frequently cursed those that had been the authors of their revolt,
and had brought such a punishment upon the city; insomuch that it openly
appeared that he did not desire that such a calamity as this punishment
of theirs amounted to should be a demonstration of his courage. Yet was
there no small quantity of the riches that had been in that city still
found among its ruins, a great deal of which the Romans dug up; but the
greatest part was discovered by those who were captives, and so they carried
it away; I mean the gold and the silver, and the rest of that most precious
furniture which the Jews had, and which the owners had treasured up under
ground, against the uncertain fortunes of war.

3. So Titus took the journey he intended into Egypt, and passed over
the desert very suddenly, and came to Alexandria, and took up a resolution
to go to Rome by sea. And as he was accompanied by two legions, he sent
each of them again to the places whence they had before come; the fifth
he sent to Mysia, and the fifteenth to Pannonia: as for the leaders of
the captives, Simon and John, with the other seven hundred men, whom he
had selected out of the rest as being eminently tall and handsome of body,
he gave order that they should be soon carried to Italy, as resolving to
produce them in his triumph. So when he had had a prosperous voyage to
his mind, the city of Rome behaved itself in his reception, and their meeting
him at a distance, as it did in the case of his father. But what made the
most splendid appearance in Titus's opinion was, when his father met him,
and received him; but still the multitude of the citizens conceived the
greatest joy when they saw them all three together, (8)
as they did at this time; nor were many days overpast when they determined
to have but one triumph, that should be common to both of them, on account
of the glorious exploits they had performed, although the senate had decreed
each of them a separate triumph by himself. So when notice had been given
beforehand of the day appointed for this pompous solemnity to be made,
on account of their victories, not one of the immense multitude was left
in the city, but every body went out so far as to gain only a station where
they might stand, and left only such a passage as was necessary for those
that were to be seen to go along it.

4. Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in
their several ranks, under their several commanders, in the night time,
and were about the gates, not of the upper palaces, but those near the
temple of Isis; for there it was that the emperors had rested the foregoing
night. And as soon as ever it was day, Vespasian and Titus came out crowned
with laurel, and clothed in those ancient purple habits which were proper
to their family, and then went as far as Octavian's Walks; for there it
was that the senate, and the principal rulers, and those that had been
recorded as of the equestrian order, waited for them. Now a tribunal had
been erected before the cloisters, and ivory chairs had been set upon it,
when they came and sat down upon them. Whereupon the soldiery made an acclamation
of joy to them immediately, and all gave them attestations of their valor;
while they were themselves without their arms, and only in their silken
garments, and crowned with laurel: then Vespasian accepted of these shouts
of theirs; but while they were still disposed to go on in such acclamations,
he gave them a signal of silence. And when every body entirely held their
peace, he stood up, and covering the greatest part of his head with his
cloak, he put up the accustomed solemn prayers; the like prayers did Titus
put up also; after which prayers Vespasian made a short speech to all the
people, and then sent away the soldiers to a dinner prepared for them by
the emperors. Then did he retire to that gate which was called the Gate
of the Pomp, because pompous shows do always go through that gate; there
it was that they tasted some food, and when they had put on their triumphal
garments, and had offered sacrifices to the gods that were placed at the
gate, they sent the triumph forward, and marched through the theatres,
that they might be the more easily seen by the multitudes.

5. Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they
deserve, and the magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man could not
easily think of as performed, either by the labor of workmen, or the variety
of riches, or the rarities of nature; for almost all such curiosities as
the most happy men ever get by piece-meal were here one heaped on another,
and those both admirable and costly in their nature; and all brought together
on that day demonstrated the vastness of the dominions of the Romans; for
there was here to be seen a mighty quantity of silver, and gold, and ivory,
contrived into all sorts of things, and did not appear as carried along
in pompous show only, but, as a man may say, running along like a river.
Some parts were composed of the rarest purple hangings, and so carried
along; and others accurately represented to the life what was embroidered
by the arts of the Babylonians. There were also precious stones that were
transparent, some set in crowns of gold, and some in other ouches, as the
workmen pleased; and of these such a vast number were brought, that we
could not but thence learn how vainly we imagined any of them to be rarities.
The images of the gods were also carried, being as well wonderful for their
largeness, as made very artificially, and with great skill of the workmen;
nor were any of these images of any other than very costly materials; and
many species of animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments.
The men also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes,
and adorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold; those
that were chosen for carrying these pompous shows having also about them
such magnificent ornaments as were both extraordinary and surprising. Besides
these, one might see that even the great number of the captives was not
unadorned, while the variety that was in their garments, and their fine
texture, concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. But what
afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of the pageants
that were borne along; for indeed he that met them could not but be afraid
that the bearers would not be able firmly enough to support them, such
was their magnitude; for many of them were so made, that they were on three
or even four stories, one above another. The magnificence also of their
structure afforded one both pleasure and surprise; for upon many of them
were laid carpets of gold. There was also wrought gold and ivory fastened
about them all; and many resemblances of the war, and those in several
ways, and variety of contrivances, affording a most lively portraiture
of itself. For there was to be seen a happy country laid waste, and entire
squadrons of enemies slain; while some of them ran away, and some were
carried into captivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown
and ruined by machines; with the strongest fortifications taken, and the
walls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized on, and an
army pouring itself within the walls; as also every place full of slaughter,
and supplications of the enemies, when they were no longer able to lift
up their hands in way of opposition. Fire also sent upon temples was here
represented, and houses overthrown, and falling upon their owners: rivers
also, after they came out of a large and melancholy desert, ran down, not
into a land cultivated, nor as drink for men, or for cattle, but through
a land still on fire upon every side; for the Jews related that such a
thing they had undergone during this war. Now the workmanship of these
representations was so magnificent and lively in the construction of the
things, that it exhibited what had been done to such as did not see it,
as if they had been there really present. On the top of every one of these
pageants was placed the commander of the city that was taken, and the manner
wherein he was taken. Moreover, there followed those pageants a great number
of ships; and for the other spoils, they were carried in great plenty.
But for those that were taken in the temple of Jerusalem, (9)
they made the greatest figure of them all; that is, the golden table, of
the weight of many talents; the candlestick also, that was made of gold,
though its construction were now changed from that which we made use of;
for its middle shaft was fixed upon a basis, and the small branches were
produced out of it to a great length, having the likeness of a trident
in their position, and had every one a socket made of brass for a lamp
at the tops of them. These lamps were in number seven, and represented
the dignity of the number seven among the Jews; and the last of all the
spoils, was carried the Law of the Jews. After these spoils passed by a
great many men, carrying the images of Victory, whose structure was entirely
either of ivory or of gold. After which Vespasian marched in the first
place, and Titus followed him; Domitian also rode along with them, and
made a glorious appearance, and rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration.

6. Now the last part of this pompous show was at the temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus, whither when they were come, they stood still; for it was
the Romans' ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news that
the general of the enemy was slain. This general was Simon, the son of
Gioras, who had then been led in this triumph among the captives; a rope
had also been put upon his head, and he had been drawn into a proper place
in the forum, and had withal been tormented by those that drew him along;
and the law of the Romans required that malefactors condemned to die should
be slain there. Accordingly, when it was related that there was an end
of him, and all the people had set up a shout for joy, they then began
to offer those sacrifices which they had consecrated, in the prayers used
in such solemnities; which when they had finished, they went away to the
palace. And as for some of the spectators, the emperors entertained them
at their own feast; and for all the rest there were noble preparations
made for feasting at home; for this was a festival day to the city of Rome,
as celebrated for the victory obtained by their army over their enemies,
for the end that was now put to their civil miseries, and for the commencement
of their hopes of future prosperity and happiness.

7. After these triumphs were over, and after the affairs of the Romans
were settled on the surest foundations, Vespasian resolved to build a temple
to Peace, which was finished in so short a time, and in so glorious a manner,
as was beyond all human expectation and opinion: for he having now by Providence
a vast quantity of wealth, besides what he had formerly gained in his other
exploits, he had this temple adorned with pictures and statues; for in
this temple were collected and deposited all such rarities as men aforetime
used to wander all over the habitable world to see, when they had a desire
to see one of them after another; he also laid up therein those golden
vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns
of his glory. But still he gave order that they should lay up their Law,
and the purple veils of the holy place, in the royal palace itself, and
keep them there.

CHAPTER 6.

CONCERNING MACHERUS, AND HOW LUCILIUS BASSUS TOOK THAT CITADEL,
AND OTHER PLACES.

1. NOW Lucilius Bassus was sent as legate into Judea, and there he received
the army from Cerealis Vitellianus, and took that citadel which was in
Herodium, together with the garrison that was in it; after which he got
together all the soldiery that was there, (which was a large body, but
dispersed into several parties,) with the tenth legion, and resolved to
make war upon Macherus; for it was highly necessary that this citadel should
be demolished, lest it might be a means of drawing away many into a rebellion,
by reason of its strength; for the nature of the place was very capable
of affording the surest hopes of safety to those that possessed it, as
well as delay and fear to those that should attack it; for what was walled
in was itself a very rocky hill, elevated to a very great height; which
circumstance alone made it very hard to he subdued. It was also so contrived
by nature, that it could not be easily ascended; for it is, as it were,
ditched about with such valleys on all sides, and to such a depth, that
the eye cannot reach their bottoms, and such as are not easily to be passed
over, and even such as it is impossible to fill up with earth. For that
valley which cuts it on the west extends to threescore furlongs, and did
not end till it came to the lake Asphaltitis; on the same side it was also
that Macherus had the tallest top of its hill elevated above the rest.
But then for the valleys that lay on the north and south sides, although
they be not so large as that already described, yet it is in like manner
an impracticable thing to think of getting over them; and for the valley
that lies on the east side, its depth is found to be no less than a hundred
cubits. It extends as far as a mountain that lies over against Macherus,
with which it is bounded.

2. Now when Alexander [Janneus], the king of the Jews, observed the
nature of this place, he was the first who built a citadel here, which
afterwards was demolished by Gabinius, when he made war against Aristobulus.
But when Herod came to be king, he thought the place to be worthy of the
utmost regard, and of being built upon in the firmest manner, and this
especially because it lay so near to Arabia; for it is seated in a convenient
place on that account, and hath a prospect toward that country; he therefore
surrounded a large space of ground with walls and towers, and built a city
there, out of which city there was a way that led up to the very citadel
itself on the top of the mountain; nay, more than this, he built a wall
round that top of the hill, and erected towers at the corners, of a hundred
and sixty cubits high; in the middle of which place he built a palace,
after a magnificent manner, wherein were large and beautiful edifices.
He also made a great many reservoirs for the reception of water, that there
might be plenty of it ready for all uses, and those in the properest places
that were afforded him there. Thus did he, as it were, contend with the
nature of the place, that he might exceed its natural strength and security
(which yet itself rendered it hard to be taken) by those fortifications
which were made by the hands of men. Moreover, he put a large quantity
of darts and other machines of war into it, and contrived to get every
thing thither that might any way contribute to its inhabitants' security,
under the longest siege possible.

3. Now within this place there grew a sort of rue (10)
that deserves our wonder on account of its largeness, for it was no way
inferior to any fig tree whatsoever, either in height or in thickness;
and the report is, that it had lasted ever since the times of Herod, and
would probably have lasted much longer, had it not been cut down by those
Jews who took possession of the place afterward. But still in that valley
which encompasses the city on the north side there is a certain place called
Baaras, which produces a root of the same name with itself (11)
its color is like to that of flame, and towards the evenings it sends out
a certain ray like lightning. It is not easily taken by such as would do
it, but recedes from their hands, nor will yield itself to be taken quietly,
until either the urine of a woman, or her menstrual blood, be poured upon
it; nay, even then it is certain death to those that touch it, unless any
one take and hang the root itself down from his hand, and so carry it away.
It may also be taken another way, without danger, which is this: they dig
a trench quite round about it, till the hidden part of the root be very
small, they then tie a dog to it, and when the dog tries hard to follow
him that tied him, this root is easily plucked up, but the dog dies immediately,
as if it were instead of the man that would take the plant away; nor after
this need any one be afraid of taking it into their hands. Yet, after all
this pains in getting, it is only valuable on account of one virtue it
hath, that if it be only brought to sick persons, it quickly drives away
those called demons, which are no other than the spirits of the wicked,
that enter into men that are alive and kill them, unless they can obtain
some help against them. Here are also fountains of hot water, that flow
out of this place, which have a very different taste one from the other;
for some of them are bitter, and others of them are plainly sweet. Here
are also many eruptions of cold waters, and this not only in the places
that lie lower, and have their fountains near one another, but, what is
still more wonderful, here is to be seen a certain cave hard by, whose
cavity is not deep, but it is covered over by a rock that is prominent;
above this rock there stand up two [hills or] breasts, as it were, but
a little distant one from another, the one of which sends out a fountain
that is very cold, and the other sends out one that is very hot; which
waters, when they are mingled together, compose a most pleasant bath; they
are medicinal indeed for other maladies, but especially good for strengthening
the nerves. This place has in it also mines of sulfur and alum.

4. Now when Bassus had taken a full view of this place, he resolved
to besiege it, by filling up the valley that lay on the east side; so he
fell hard to work, and took great pains to raise his banks as soon as possible,
and by that means to render the siege easy. As for the Jews that were caught
in this place, they separated themselves from the strangers that were with
them, and they forced those strangers, as an otherwise useless multitude,
to stay in the lower part of the city, and undergo the principal dangers,
while they themselves seized on the upper citadel, and held it, and this
both on account of its strength, and to provide for their own safety. They
also supposed they might obtain their pardon, in case they should [at last]
surrender the citadel. However, they were willing to make trial, in the
first place, whether the hopes they had of avoiding a siege would come
to any thing; with which intention they made sallies every day, and fought
with those that met them; in which conflicts they were many of them slain,
as they therein slew many of the Romans. But still it was the opportunities
that presented themselves which chiefly gained both sides their victories;
these were gained by the Jews, when they fell upon the Romans as they were
off their guard; but by the Romans, when, upon the others' sallies against
their banks, they foresaw their coming, and were upon their lard when they
received them. But the conclusion of this siege did not depend upon these
bickerings; but a certain surprising accident, relating to what was done
in this siege, forced the Jews to surrender the citadel. There was a certain
young man among the besieged, of great boldness, and very active of his
hand, his name was Eleazar; he greatly signalized himself in those sallies,
and encouraged the Jews to go out in great numbers, in order to hinder
the raising of the banks, and did the Romans a vast deal of mischief when
they came to fighting; he so managed matters, that those who sallied out
made their attacks easily, and returned back without danger, and this by
still bringing up the rear himself. Now it happened that, on a certain
time, when the fight was over, and both sides were parted, and retired
home, he, in way of contempt of the enemy, and thinking that none of them
would begin the fight again at that time, staid without the gates, and
talked with those that were upon the wall, and his mind was wholly intent
upon what they said. Now a certain person belonging to the Roman camp,
whose lame was Rufus, by birth an Egyptian, ran upon him suddenly, when
nobody expected such a thing, and carried him off, with his armor itself;
while, in the mean time, those that saw it from the wall were under such
an amazement, that Rufus prevented their assistance, and carried Eleazar
to the Roman camp. So the general of the Romans ordered that he should
be taken up naked, set before the city to be seen, and sorely whipped before
their eyes. Upon this sad accident that befell the young man, the Jews
were terribly confounded, and the city, with one voice, sorely lamented
him, and the mourning proved greater than could well be supposed upon the
calamity of a single person. When Bassus perceived that, he began to think
of using a stratagem against the enemy, and was desirous to aggravate their
grief, in order to prevail with them to surrender the city for the preservation
of that man. Nor did he fail of his hope; for he commanded them to set
up a cross, as if he were just going to hang Eleazar upon it immediately;
the sight of this occasioned a sore grief among those that were in the
citadel, and they groaned vehemently, and cried out that they could not
bear to see him thus destroyed. Whereupon Eleazar besought them not to
disregard him, now he was going to suffer a most miserable death, and exhorted
them to save themselves, by yielding to the Roman power and good fortune,
since all other people were now conquered by them. These men were greatly
moved with what he said, there being also many within the city that interceded
for him, because he was of an eminent and very numerous family; so they
now yielded to their passion of commiseration, contrary to their usual
custom. Accordingly, they sent out immediately certain messengers, and
treated with the Romans, in order to a surrender of the citadel to them,
and desired that they might be permitted to go away, and take Eleazar along
with them. Then did the Romans and their general accept of these terms;
while the multitude of strangers that were in the lower part of the city,
hearing of the agreement that was made by the Jews for themselves alone,
were resolved to fly away privately in the night time; but as soon as they
had opened their gates, those that had come to terms with Bassus told him
of it; whether it were that they envied the others' deliverance, or whether
it were done out of fear, lest an occasion should be taken against them
upon their escape, is uncertain. The most courageous, therefore, of those
men that went out prevented the enemy, and got away, and fled for it; but
for those men that were caught within they

5. When Bassus had settled these affairs, he marched hastily to the
forest of Jarden, as it is called; for he had heard that a great many of
those that had fled from Jerusalem and Macherus formerly were there gotten
together. When he was therefore come to the place, and understood that
the former news was no mistake, he, in the first place, surrounded the
whole place with his horsemen, that such of the Jews as had boldness enough
to try to break through might have no way possible for escaping, by reason
of the situation of these horsemen; and for the footmen, he ordered them
to cut down the trees that were in the wood whither they were fled. So
the Jews were under a necessity of performing some glorious exploit, and
of greatly exposing themselves in a battle, since they might perhaps thereby
escape. So they made a general attack, and with a great shout fell upon
those that surrounded them, who received them with great courage; and so
while the one side fought desperately, and the others would not yield,
the fight was prolonged on that account. But the event of the battle did
not answer the expectation of the assailants; for so it happened, that
no more than twelve fell on the Roman side, with a few that were wounded;
but not one of the Jews escaped out of this battle, but they were all killed,
being in the whole not fewer in number than three thousand, together with
Judas, the son of Jairus, their general, concerning whom we have before
spoken, that he had been a captain of a certain band at the siege of Jerusalem,
and by going down into a certain vault under ground, had privately made
his escape.

6. About the same time it was that Caesar sent a letter to Bassus, and
to Liberius Maximus, who was the procurator [of Judea], and gave order
that all Judea should be exposed to sale (12)
for he did not found any city there, but reserved the country for himself.
However, he assigned a place for eight hundred men only, whom he had dismissed
from his army, which he gave them for their habitation; it is called Emmaus,
(13) and
is distant from Jerusalem threescore furlongs. He also laid a tribute upon
the Jews wheresoever they were, and enjoined every one of them to bring
two drachmae every year into the Capitol, as they used to pay the same
to the temple at Jerusalem. And this was the state of the Jewish affairs
at this time.

CHAPTER 7.

CONCERNING THE CALAMITY THAT BEFELL ANTIOCHUS, KING OF COMMAGENE.
AS ALSO CONCERNING THE ALANS AND WHAT GREAT MISCHIEFS THEY DID TO THE MEDES
AND ARMENIANS.

1. AND now, in the fourth year of the reign of Vespasian, it came to
pass that Antiochus, the king of Commagene, with all his family, fell into
very great calamities. The occasion was this: Cesennius Petus, who was
president of Syria at this time, whether it were done out of regard to
truth, or whether out of hatred to Antiochus, (for which was the real motive
was never thoroughly discovered,) sent an epistle to Caesar, and therein
told him that Antiochus, with his son Epiphanes, had resolved to rebel
against the Romans, and had made a league with the king of Parthia to that
purpose; that it was therefore fit to prevent them, lest they prevent us,
and begin such a war as may cause a general disturbance in the Roman empire.
Now Caesar was disposed to take some care about the matter, since this
discovery was made; for the neighborhood of the kingdoms made this affair
worthy of greater regard; for Samoseta, the capital of Commagene, lies
upon Euphrates, and upon any such design could afford an easy passage over
it to the Parthians, and could also afford them a secure reception. Petus
was accordingly believed, and had authority given him of doing what he
should think proper in the case; so he set about it without delay, and
fell upon Commagene before Antiochus and his people had the least expectation
of his coming: he had with him the tenth legion, as also some cohorts and
troops of horsemen. These kings also came to his assistance: Aristobulus,
king of the country called Chalcidene, and Sohemus, who was called king
of Emesa. Nor was there any opposition made to his forces when they entered
the kingdom; for no one of that country would so much as lift up his hand
against them. When Antiochus heard this unexpected news, he could not think
in the least of making war with the Romans, but determined to leave his
whole kingdom in the state wherein it now was, and to retire privately,
with his wife and children, as thinking thereby to demonstrate himself
to the Romans to be innocent as to the accusation laid against him. So
he went away from that city as far as a hundred and twenty furlongs, into
a plain, and there pitched his tents.

2. Petus then sent some of his men to seize upon Samosate, and by their
means took possession of that city, while he went himself to attack Antiochus
with the rest of his army. However, the king was not prevailed upon by
the distress he was in to do any thing in the way of war against the Romans,
but bemoaned his own hard fate, and endured with patience what he was not
able to prevent. But his sons, who were young, and unexperienced in war,
but of strong bodies, were not easily induced to bear this calamity without
fighting. Epiphanes, therefore, and Callinicus, betook themselves to military
force; and as the battle was a sore one, and lasted all the day long, they
showed their own valor in a remarkable manner, and nothing but the approach
of night put a period thereto, and that without any diminution of their
forces; yet would not Antiochus, upon this conclusion of the fight, continue
there by any means, but took his wife and his daughters, and fled away
with them to Cilicia, and by so doing quite discouraged the minds of his
own soldiers. Accordingly, they revolted, and went over to the Romans,
out of the despair they were in of his keeping the kingdom; and his case
was looked upon by all as quite desperate. It was therefore necessary that
Epiphanes and his soldiers should get clear of their enemies before they
became entirely destitute of any confederates; nor were there any more
than ten horsemen with him, who passed with him over Euphrates, whence
they went undisturbed to Vologeses, the king of Parthie, where they were
not disregarded as fugitives, but had the same respect paid them as if
they had retained their ancient prosperity.

3. Now when Antiochus was come to Tarsus in Cilicia, Petus ordered a
centurion to go to him, and send him in bonds to Rome. However, Vespasian
could not endure to have a king brought to him in that manner, but thought
it fit rather to have a regard to the ancient friendship that had been
between them, than to preserve an inexorable anger upon pretense of this
war. Accordingly, he gave orders that they should take off his bonds, while
he was still upon the road, and that he should not come to Rome, but should
now go and live at Lacedemon; he also gave him large revenues, that he
might not only live in plenty, but like a king also. When Epiphanes, who
before was in great fear for his father, was informed of this, their minds
were freed from that great and almost incurable concern they had been under.
He also hoped that Caesar would be reconciled to them, upon the intercession
of Vologeses; for although he lived in plenty, he knew not how to bear
living out of the Roman empire. So Caesar gave him leave, after an obliging
manner, and he came to Rome; and as his father came quickly to him from
Lacedemon, he had all sorts of respect paid him there, and there he remained.

4. Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned
some where as being Scythians and inhabiting at the lake Meotis. This nation
about this time laid a design of falling upon Media, and the parts beyond
it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the
king of Hyrcania; for he was master of that passage which king Alexander
[the Great] shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come
through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon the Medes
unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which they found full of people,
and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody durst make any resistance
against them; for Paeorus, the king of the country, had fled away for fear
into places where they could not easily come at him, and had yielded up
every thing he had to them, and had only saved his wife and his concubines
from them, and that with difficulty also, after they had been made captives,
by giving them a hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore
plundered the country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded
as far as Armenia, laying all waste before them. Now Tiridates was king
of that country, who met them, and fought them, but had like to have been
taken alive in the battle; for a certain man threw a net over him from
a great distance, and had soon drawn him to him, unless he had immediately
cut the cord with his sword, and ran away, and prevented it. So the Alans,
being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, and drove
a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the other prey they
had gotten out of both kingdoms, along with them, and then retreated back
to their own country.

CHAPTER 8.

CONCERNING MASADA AND THOSE SICARII WHO KEPT IT; AND HOW
SILVA BETOOK HIMSELF TO FORM THE SIEGE OF THAT CITADEL. ELEAZAR'S SPEECHES
TO THE BESIEGED.

1. WHEN Bassus was dead in Judea, Flavius Silva succeeded him as procurator
there; who, when he saw that all the rest of the country was subdued in
this war, and that there was but one only strong hold that was still in
rebellion, he got all his army together that lay in different places, and
made an expedition against it. This fortress was called Masada. It was
one Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander of these Sicarii, that had
seized upon it. He was a descendant from that Judas who had persuaded abundance
of the Jews, as we have formerly related, not to submit to the taxation
when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one; for then it was that the
Sicarii got together against those that were willing to submit to the Romans,
and treated them in all respects as if they had been their enemies, both
by plundering them of what they had, by driving away their cattle, and
by setting fire to their houses; for they said that they differed not at
all from foreigners, by betraying, in so cowardly a manner, that freedom
which Jews thought worthy to be contended for to the utmost, and by owning
that they preferred slavery under the Romans before such a contention.
Now this was in reality no better than a pretense and a cloak for the barbarity
which was made use of by them, and to color over their own avarice, which
they afterwards made evident by their own actions; for those that were
partners with them in their rebellion joined also with them in the war
against the Romans, and went further lengths with them in their impudent
undertakings against them; and when they were again convicted of dissembling
in such their pretenses, they still more abused those that justly reproached
them for their wickedness. And indeed that was a time most fertile in all
manner of wicked practices, insomuch that no kind of evil deeds were then
left undone; nor could any one so much as devise any bad thing that was
new, so deeply were they all infected, and strove with one another in their
single capacity, and in their communities, who should run the greatest
lengths in impiety towards God, and in unjust actions towards their neighbors;
the men of power oppressing the multitude, and the multitude earnestly
laboring to destroy the men of power. The one part were desirous of tyrannizing
over others, and the rest of offering violence to others, and of plundering
such as were richer than themselves. They were the Sicarii who first began
these transgressions, and first became barbarous towards those allied to
them, and left no words of reproach unsaid, and no works of perdition untried,
in order to destroy those whom their contrivances affected. Yet did John
demonstrate by his actions that these Sicarii were more moderate than he
was himself, for he not only slew all such as gave him good counsel to
do what was right, but treated them worst of all, as the most bitter enemies
that he had among all the Citizens; nay, he filled his entire country with
ten thousand instances of wickedness, such as a man who was already hardened
sufficiently in his impiety towards God would naturally do; for the food
was unlawful that was set upon his table, and he rejected those purifications
that the law of his country had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder
if he, who was so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe any rules
of gentleness and common affection towards men. Again, therefore, what
mischief was there which Simon the son of Gioras did not do? or what kind
of abuses did he abstain from as to those very free-men who had set him
up for a tyrant? What friendship or kindred were there that did not make
him more bold in his daily murders? for they looked upon the doing of mischief
to strangers only as a work beneath their courage, but thought their barbarity
towards their nearest relations would be a glorious demonstration thereof.
The Idumeans also strove with these men who should be guilty of the greatest
madness! for they [all], vile wretches as they were, cut the throats of
the high priests, that so no part of a religious regard to God. might be
preserved; they thence proceeded to destroy utterly the least remains of
a political government, and introduced the most complete scene of iniquity
in all instances that were practicable; under which scene that sort of
people that were called zealots grew up, and who indeed corresponded to
the name; for they imitated every wicked work; nor, if their memory suggested
any evil thing that had formerly been done, did they avoid zealously to
pursue the same; and although they gave themselves that name from their
zeal for what was good, yet did it agree to them only by way of irony,
on account of those they had unjustly treated by their wild and brutish
disposition, or as thinking the greatest mischiefs to be the greatest good.
Accordingly, they all met with such ends as God deservedly brought upon
them in way of punishment; for all such miseries have been sent upon them
as man's nature is capable of undergoing, till the utmost period of their
lives, and till death came upon them in various ways of torment; yet might
one say justly that they suffered less than they had done, because it was
impossible they could be punished according to their deserving. But to
make a lamentation according to the deserts of those who fell under these
men's barbarity, this is not a proper place for it; - I therefore now return
again to the remaining part of the present narration.

2. For now it was that the Roman general came, and led his army against
Eleazar and those Sicarii who held the fortress Masada together with him;
and for the whole country adjoining, he presently gained it, and put garrisons
into the most proper places of it; he also built a wall quite round the
entire fortress, that none of the besieged might easily escape; he also
set his men to guard the several parts of it; he also pitched his camp
in such an agreeable place as he had chosen for the siege, and at which
place the rock belonging to the fortress did make the nearest approach
to the neighboring mountain, which yet was a place of difficulty for getting
plenty of provisions; for it was not only food that was to be brought from
a great distance [to the army], and this with a great deal of pain to those
Jews who were appointed for that purpose, but water was also to be brought
to the camp, because the place afforded no fountain that was near it. When
therefore Silva had ordered these affairs beforehand, he fell to besieging
the place; which siege was likely to stand in need of a great deal of skill
and pains, by reason of the strength of the fortress, the nature of which
I will now describe.

3. There was a rock, not small in circumference, and very high. It was
encompassed with valleys of such vast depth downward, that the eye could
not reach their bottoms; they were abrupt, and such as no animal could
walk upon, excepting at two places of the rock, where it subsides, in order
to afford a passage for ascent, though not without difficulty. Now, of
the ways that lead to it, one is that from the lake Asphaltiris, towards
the sun-rising, and another on the west, where the ascent is easier: the
one of these ways is called the Serpent, as resembling that animal
in its narrowness and its perpetual windings; for it is broken off at the
prominent precipices of the rock, and returns frequently into itself, and
lengthening again by little and little, hath much ado to proceed forward;
and he that would walk along it must first go on one leg, and then on the
other; there is also nothing but destruction, in case your feet slip; for
on each side there is a vastly deep chasm and precipice, sufficient to
quell the courage of every body by the terror it infuses into the mind.
When, therefore, a man hath gone along this way for thirty furlongs, the
rest is the top of the hill - not ending at a small point, but is no other
than a plain upon the highest part of the mountain. Upon this top of the
hill, Jonathan the high priest first of all built a fortress, and called
it Masada: after which the rebuilding of this place employed the care of
king Herod to a great degree; he also built a wall round about the entire
top of the hill, seven furlongs long; it was composed of white stone; its
height was twelve, and its breadth eight cubits; there were also erected
upon that wall thirty-eight towers, each of them fifty cubits high; out
of which you might pass into lesser edifices, which were built on the inside,
round the entire wall; for the king reserved the top of the hill, which
was of a fat soil, and better mould than any valley for agriculture, that
such as committed themselves to this fortress for their preservation might
not even there be quite destitute of food, in case they should ever be
in want of it from abroad. Moreover, he built a palace therein at the western
ascent; it was within and beneath the walls of the citadel, but inclined
to its north side. Now the wall of this palace was very high and strong,
and had at its four corners towers sixty cubits high. The furniture also
of the edifices, and of the cloisters, and of the baths, was of great variety,
and very costly; and these buildings were supported by pillars of single
stones on every side; the walls and also the floors of the edifices were
paved with stones of several colors. He also had cut many and great pits,
as reservoirs for water, out of the rocks, at every one of the places that
were inhabited, both above and round about the palace, and before the wall;
and by this contrivance he endeavored to have water for several uses, as
if there had been fountains there. Here was also a road digged from the
palace, and leading to the very top of the mountain, which yet could not
be seen by such as were without [the walls]; nor indeed could enemies easily
make use of the plain roads; for the road on the east side, as we have
already taken notice, could not be walked upon, by reason of its nature;
and for the western road, he built a large tower at its narrowest place,
at no less a distance from the top of the hill than a thousand cubits;
which tower could not possibly be passed by, nor could it be easily taken;
nor indeed could those that walked along it without any fear (such was
its contrivance) easily get to the end of it; and after such a manner was
this citadel fortified, both by nature and by the hands of men, in order
to frustrate the attacks of enemies.

4. As for the furniture that was within this fortress, it was still
more wonderful on account of its splendor and long continuance; for here
was laid up corn in large quantities, and such as would subsist men for
a long time; here was also wine and oil in abundance, with all kinds of
pulse and dates heaped up together; all which Eleazar found there, when
he and his Sicarii got possession of the fortress by treachery. These fruits
were also fresh and full ripe, and no way inferior to such fruits newly
laid in, although they were little short of a hundred years (14)
from the laying in these provisions [by Herod], till the place was taken
by the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans got possession of those fruits
that were left, they found them not corrupted all that while; nor should
we be mistaken, if we supposed that the air was here the cause of their
enduring so long; this fortress being so high, and so free from the mixture
of all terrain and muddy particles of matter. There was also found here
a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, which had been treasured
up by that king, and were sufficient for ten thousand men; there was east
iron, and brass, and tin, which show that he had taken much pains to have
all things here ready for the greatest occasions; for the report goes how
Herod thus prepared this fortress on his own account, as a refuge against
two kinds of danger; the one for fear of the multitude of the Jews, lest
they should depose him, and restore their former kings to the government;
the other danger was greater and more terrible, which arose from Cleopatra
queen of Egypt, who did not conceal her intentions, but spoke often to
Antony, and desired him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to bestow the
kingdom of Judea upon her. And certainly it is a great wonder that Antony
did never comply with her commands in this point, as he was so miserably
enslaved to his passion for her; nor should any one have been surprised
if she had been gratified in such her request. So the fear of these dangers
made Herod rebuild Masada, and thereby leave it for the finishing stroke
of the Romans in this Jewish war.

5. Since therefore the Roman commander Silva had now built a wall on
the outside, round about this whole place, as we have said already, and
had thereby made a most accurate provision to prevent any one of the besieged
running away, he undertook the siege itself, though he found but one single
place that would admit of the banks he was to raise; for behind that tower
which secured the road that led to the palace, and to the top of the hill
from the west; there was a certain eminency of the rock, very broad and
very prominent, but three hundred cubits beneath the highest part of Masada;
it was called the White Promontory. Accordingly, he got upon that part
of the rock, and ordered the army to bring earth; and when they fell to
that work with alacrity, and abundance of them together, the bank was raised,
and became solid for two hundred cubits in height. Yet was not this bank
thought sufficiently high for the use of the engines that were to be set
upon it; but still another elevated work of great stones compacted together
was raised upon that bank; this was fifty cubits, both in breadth and height.
The other machines that were now got ready were like to those that had
been first devised by Vespasian, and afterwards by Titus, for sieges. There
was also a tower made of the height of sixty cubits, and all over plated
with iron, out of which the Romans threw darts and stones from the engines,
and soon made those that fought from the walls of the place to retire,
and would not let them lift up their heads above the works. At the same
time Silva ordered that great battering ram which he had made to be brought
thither, and to be set against the wall, and to make frequent batteries
against it, which with some difficulty broke down a part of the wall, and
quite overthrew it. However, the Sicarii made haste, and presently built
another wall within that, which should not be liable to the same misfortune
from the machines with the other; it was made soft and yielding, and so
was capable of avoiding the terrible blows that affected the other. It
was framed after the following manner: They laid together great beams of
wood lengthways, one close to the end of another, and the same way in which
they were cut: there were two of these rows parallel to one another, and
laid at such a distance from each other as the breadth of the wall required,
and earth was put into the space between those rows. Now, that the earth
might not fall away upon the elevation of this bank to a greater height,
they further laid other beams over cross them, and thereby bound those
beams together that lay lengthways. This work of theirs was like a real
edifice; and when the machines were applied, the blows were weakened by
its yielding; and as the materials by such concussion were shaken closer
together, the pile by that means became firmer than before. When Silva
saw this, he thought it best to endeavor the taking of this wall by setting
fire to it; so he gave order that the soldiers should throw a great number
of burning torches upon it: accordingly, as it was chiefly made of wood,
it soon took fire; and when it was once set on fire, its hollowness made
that fire spread to a mighty flame. Now, at the very beginning of this
fire, a north wind that then blew proved terrible to the Romans; for by
bringing the flame downward, it drove it upon them, and they were almost
in despair of success, as fearing their machines would be burnt: but after
this, on a sudden the wind changed into the south, as if it were done by
Divine Providence, and blew strongly the contrary way, and carried the
flame, and drove it against the wall, which was now on fire through its
entire thickness. So the Romans, having now assistance from God, returned
to their camp with joy, and resolved to attack their enemies the very next
day; on which occasion they set their watch more carefully that night,
lest any of the Jews should run away from them without being discovered.

6. However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor would
he permit any one else to do so; but when he saw their wall burned down
by the fire, and could devise no other way of escaping, or room for their
further courage, and setting before their eyes what the Romans would do
to them, their children, and their wives, if they got them into their power,
he consulted about having them all slain. Now as he judged this to be the
best thing they could do in their present circumstances, he gathered the
most courageous of his companions together, and encouraged them to take
that course by a speech (15)
which he made to them in the manner following: "Since we, long ago,
my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to
any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind,
the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice.
And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for self-contradiction,
while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though it were then without
danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also
as are intolerable; I mean this, upon the supposition that the Romans once
reduce us under their power while we are alive. We were the very first
that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; and
I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God hath granted us, that it is
still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath
not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very
plain that we shall be taken within a day's time; but it is still an eligible
thing to die after a glorious manner, together with our dearest friends.
This is what our enemies themselves cannot by any means hinder, although
they be very desirous to take us alive. Nor can we propose to ourselves
any more to fight them, and beat them. It had been proper indeed for us
to have conjectured at the purpose of God much sooner, and at the very
first, when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we received
such sore treatment from one another, and worse treatment from our enemies,
and to have been sensible that the same God, who had of old taken the Jewish
nation into his favor, had now condemned them to destruction; for had he
either continued favorable, or been but in a lesser degree displeased with
us, he had not overlooked the destruction of so many men, or delivered
his most holy city to be burnt and demolished by our enemies. To be sure
we weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still
in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against
God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other men to
preserve their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that
our hopes were in vain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate
state we are now in, and which is beyond all our expectations; for the
nature of this fortress which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved
a means of our deliverance; and even while we have still great abundance
of food, and a great quantity of arms, and other necessaries more than
we want, we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope of deliverance;
for that fire which was driven upon our enemies did not of its own accord
turn back upon the wall which we had built; this was the effect of God's
anger against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty of in
a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to our own countrymen;
the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from God
himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be more moderate
than the other. Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children
before they have tasted of slavery; and after we have slain them, let us
bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves
in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us. But first let us destroy
our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that this will
be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon
our bodies, and shall fall of our wealth also; and let us spare nothing
but our provisions; for they will be a testimonial when we are dead that
we were not subdued for want of necessaries, but that, according to our
original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery."

7. This was Eleazar's speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of all
the auditors acquiesce therein; but although some of them were very zealous
to put his advice in practice, and were in a manner filled with pleasure
at it, and thought death to be a good thing, yet had those that were most
effeminate a commiseration for their wives and families; and when these
men were especially moved by the prospect of their own certain death, they
looked wistfully at one another, and by the tears that were in their eyes
declared their dissent from his opinion. When Eleazar saw these people
in such fear, and that their souls were dejected at so prodigious a proposal,
he was afraid lest perhaps these effeminate persons should, by their lamentations
and tears, enfeeble those that heard what he had said courageously; so
he did not leave off exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and recollecting
proper arguments for raising their courage, he undertook to speak more
briskly and fully to them, and that concerning the immortality of the soul.
So he made a lamentable groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those that
wept, he spake thus: "Truly, I was greatly mistaken when I thought
to be assisting to brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, and
to such as were resolved either to live with honor, or else to die; but
I find that you are such people as are no better than others, either in
virtue or in courage, and are afraid of dying, though you be delivered
thereby from the greatest miseries, while you ought to make no delay in
this matter, nor to await any one to give you good advice; for the laws
of our country, and of God himself, have from ancient times, and as soon
as ever we could use our reason, continually taught us, and our forefathers
have corroborated the same doctrine by their actions, and by their bravery
of mind, that it is life that is a calamity to men, and not death; for
this last affords our souls their liberty, and sends them by a removal
into their own place of purity, where they are to be insensible of all
sorts of misery; for while souls are tied clown to a mortal body, they
are partakers of its miseries; and really, to speak the truth, they are
themselves dead; for the union of what is divine to what is mortal is disagreeable.
It is true, the power of the soul is great, even when it is imprisoned
in a mortal body; for by moving it after a way that is invisible, it makes
the body a sensible instrument, and causes it to advance further in its
actions than mortal nature could otherwise do. However, when it is freed
from that weight which draws it down to the earth and is connected with
it, it obtains its own proper place, and does then become a partaker of
that blessed power, and those abilities, which are then every way incapable
of being hindered in their operations. It continues invisible, indeed,
to the eyes of men, as does God himself; for certainly it is not itself
seen while it is in the body; for it is there after an invisible manner,
and when it is freed from it, it is still not seen. It is this soul which
hath one nature, and that an incorruptible one also; but yet it is the
cause of the change that is made in the body; for whatsoever it be which
the soul touches, that lives and flourishes; and from whatsoever it is
removed, that withers away and dies; such a degree is there in it of immortality.
Let me produce the state of sleep as a most evident demonstration of the
truth of what I say; wherein souls, when the body does not distract them,
have the sweetest rest depending on themselves, and conversing with God,
by their alliance to him; they then go every where, and foretell many futurities
beforehand. And why are we afraid of death, while we are pleased with the
rest that we have in sleep? And how absurd a thing is it to pursue after
liberty while we are alive, and yet to envy it to ourselves where it will
be eternal! We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of
our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die.
Yet, if we do stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter,
let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; for
these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon
it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from
their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them
upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell
other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders
them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be
carried to their familiar friends [that are dead], so firmly and certainly
do they believe that souls converse with one another [in the other world].
So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them,
they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their
soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the
midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest friends
conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind
conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going a very long journey,
who at the same time weep on their own account, but look upon the others
as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order
of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the
Indians? and by our own cowardice to lay a base reproach upon the laws
of our country, which are so much desired and imitated by all mankind?
But put the case that we had been brought up under another persuasion,
and taught that life is the greatest good which men are capable of, and
that death is a calamity; however, the circumstances we are now in ought
to he an inducement to us to bear such calamity courageously, since it
is by the will of God, and by necessity, that we are to die; for it now
appears that God hath made such a decree against the whole Jewish nation,
that we are to be deprived of this life which [he knew] we would not make
a due use of. For do not you ascribe the occasion of our present condition
to yourselves, nor think the Romans are the true occasion that this war
we have had with them is become so destructive to us all: these things
have not come to pass by their power, but a more powerful cause hath intervened,
and made us afford them an occasion of their appearing to be conquerors
over us. What Roman weapons, I pray you, were those by which the Jews at
Cesarea were slain? On the contrary, when they were no way disposed to
rebel, but were all the while keeping their seventh day festival, and did
not so much as lift up their hands against the citizens of Cesarea, yet
did those citizens run upon them in great crowds, and cut their throats,
and the throats of their wives and children, and this without any regard
to the Romans themselves, who never took us for their enemies till we revolted
from them. But some may be ready to say, that truly the people of Cesarea
had always a quarrel against those that lived among them, and that when
an opportunity offered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they
had against them. What then shall we say to those of Scythopolis, who ventured
to wage war with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way
of revenge upon the Romans, when they acted in concert with our countrymen.
Wherefore you see how little our good-will and fidelity to them profiled
us, while they were slain, they and their whole families, after the most
inhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for the assistance
they had afforded the others; for that very same destruction which they
had prevented from falling upon the others did they suffer themselves from
them, as if they had been ready to be the actors against them. It would
be too long for me to speak at this time of every destruction brought upon
us; for you cannot but know that there was not any one Syrian city which
did not slay their Jewish inhabitants, and were not more bitter enemies
to us than were the Romans themselves; nay, even those of Damascus, (16)
when they were able to allege no tolerable pretense against us, filled
their city with the most barbarous slaughters of our people, and cut the
throats of eighteen thousand Jews, with their wives and children. And as
to the multitude of those that were slain in Egypt, and that with torments
also, we have been informed they were more than sixty thousand; those indeed
being in a foreign country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose
against their enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for
all those of us who have waged war against the Romans in our own country,
had we not sufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory? For we had
arms, and walls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken,
and courage not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which
encouraged us all to revolt from the Romans. But then these advantages
sufficed us but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they
really appeared to be the origin of our miseries; for all we had hath been
taken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if these advantages
were only to render their victory over us the more glorious, and were not
disposed for the preservation of those by whom these preparations were
made. And as for those that are already dead in the war, it is reasonable
we should esteem them blessed, for they are dead in defending, and not
in betraying their liberty; but as to the multitude of those that are now
under the Romans, who would not pity their condition? and who would not
make haste to die, before he would suffer the same miseries with them?
Some of them have been put upon the rack, and tortured with fire and whippings,
and so died. Some have been half devoured by wild beasts, and yet have
been reserved alive to be devoured by them a second time, in order to afford
laughter and sport to our enemies; and such of those as are alive still
are to be looked on as the most miserable, who, being so desirous of death,
could not come at it. And where is now that great city, the metropolis
of the Jewish nation, which vas fortified by so many walls round about,
which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could
hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many
ten thousands of men to fight for it? Where is this city that was believed
to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the very
foundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, I mean
the camp of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins;
some unfortunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple, and a few
women are there preserved alive by the enemy, for our bitter shame and
reproach. Now who is there that revolves these things in his mind, and
yet is able to bear the sight of the sun, though he might live out of danger?
Who is there so much his country's enemy, or so unmanly, and so desirous
of living, as not to repent that he is still alive? And I cannot but wish
that we had all died before we had seen that holy city demolished by the
hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our holy temple dug up after
so profane a manner. But since we had a generous hope that deluded us,
as if we might perhaps have been able to avenge ourselves on our enemies
on that account, though it be now become vanity, and hath left us alone
in this distress, let us make haste to die bravely. Let us pity ourselves,
our children, and our wives while it is in our own power to show pity to
them; for we were born to die, (17)
as well as those were whom we have begotten; nor is it in the power of
the most happy of our race to avoid it. But for abuses, and slavery, and
the sight of our wives led away after an ignominious manner, with their
children, these are not such evils as are natural and necessary among men;
although such as do not prefer death before those miseries, when it is
in their power so to do, must undergo even them, on account of their own
cowardice. We revolted from the Romans with great pretensions to courage;
and when, at the very last, they invited us to preserve ourselves, we would
not comply with them. Who will not, therefore, believe that they will certainly
be in a rage at us, in case they can take us alive? Miserable will then
be the young men who will be strong enough in their bodies to sustain many
torments! miserable also will be those of elder years, who will not be
able to bear those calamities which young men might sustain! One man will
be obliged to hear the voice of his son implore help of his father, when
his hands are bound. But certainly our hands are still at liberty, and
have a sword in them; let them then be subservient to us in our glorious
design; let us die before we become slaves under our eneimies, and let
us go out of the world, together with our children and our wives, in a
state of freedom. This it is that our laws command us to do this it is
that our wives and children crave at our hands; nay, God himself hath brought
this necessity upon us; while the Romans desire the contrary, and are afraid
lest any of us should die before we are taken. Let us therefore make haste,
and instead of affording them so much pleasure, as they hope for in getting
us under their power, let us leave them an example which shall at once
cause their astonishment at our death, and their admiration of our hardiness
therein."

CHAPTER 9.

HOW THE PEOPLE THAT WERE IN THE FORTRESS WERE PREVAILED ON
BY THE WORDS OF ELEAZAR, TWO WOMEN AND FIVE CHILDREN ONLY EXCEPTED AND
ALL SUBMITTED TO BE KILLED BY ONE ANOTHER.

1. NOW as Eleazar was proceeding on in this exhortation, they all cut
him off short, and made haste to do the work, as full of an unconquerable
ardor of mind, and moved with a demoniacal fury. So they went their ways,
as one still endeavoring to be before another, and as thinking that this
eagerness would be a demonstration of their courage and good conduct, if
they could avoid appearing in the last class; so great was the zeal they
were in to slay their wives and children, and themselves also! Nor indeed,
when they came to the work itself, did their courage fail them, as one
might imagine it would have done, but they then held fast the same resolution,
without wavering, which they had upon the hearing of Eleazar's speech,
while yet every one of them still retained the natural passion of love
to themselves and their families, because the reasoning they went upon
appeared to them to be very just, even with regard to those that were dearest
to them; for the husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their
children into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them,
with tears in their eyes. Yet at the same time did they complete what they
had resolved on, as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers;
and they had nothing else for their comfort but the necessity they were
in of doing this execution, to avoid that prospect they had of the miseries
they were to suffer from their enemies. Nor was there at length any one
of these men found that scrupled to act their part in this terrible execution,
but every one of them despatched his dearest relations. Miserable men indeed
were they! whose distress forced them to slay their own wives and children
with their own hands, as the lightest of those evils that were before them.
So they being not able to bear the grief they were under for what they
had done any longer, and esteeming it an injury to those they had slain,
to live even the shortest space of time after them, they presently laid
all they had upon a heap, and set fire to it. They then chose ten men by
lot out of them to slay all the rest; every one of whom laid himself down
by his wife and children on the ground, and threw his arms about them,
and they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by lot executed
that melancholy office; and when these ten had, without fear, slain them
all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves, that he whose
lot it was should first kill the other nine, and after all should kill
himself. Accordingly, all these had courage sufficient to be no way behind
one another in doing or suffering; so, for a conclusion, the nine offered
their necks to the executioner, and he who was the last of all took a view
of all the other bodies, lest perchance some or other among so many that
were slain should want his assistance to be quite despatched, and when
he perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with
the great force of his hand ran his sword entirely through himself, and
fell down dead near to his own relations. So these people died with this
intention, that they would not leave so much as one soul among them all
alive to be subject to the Romans. Yet was there an ancient woman, and
another who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most women in prudence
and learning, with five children, who had concealed themselves in caverns
under ground, and had carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden
there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of one another. Those
others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being
withal included in that computation. This calamitous slaughter was made
on the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan].

2. Now for the Romans, they expected that they should be fought in the
morning, when, accordingly, they put on their armor, and laid bridges of
planks upon their ladders from their banks, to make an assault upon the
fortress, which they did; but saw nobody as an enemy, but a terrible solitude
on every side, with a fire within the place, as well as a perfect silence.
So they were at a loss to guess at what had happened. At length they made
a shout, as if it had been at a blow given by the battering ram, to try
whether they could bring any one out that was within; the women heard this
noise, and came out of their under-ground cavern, and informed the Romans
what had been done, as it was done; and the second of them clearly described
all both what was said and what was done, and this manner of it; yet did
they not easily give their attention to such a desperate undertaking, and
did not believe it could be as they said; they also attempted to put the
fire out, and quickly cutting themselves a way through it, they came within
the palace, and so met with the multitude of the slain, but could take
no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could
they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and the immovable
contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown, when they
went through with such an action as that was.

CHAPTER 10.

THAT MANY OF THE SICARII FLED TO ALEXANDRIA ALSO AND WHAT
DANGERS THEY WERE IN THERE; ON WHICH ACCOUNT THAT TEMPLE WHICH HAD FORMERLY
BEEN BUILT BY ONIAS THE HIGH PRIEST WAS DESTROYED.

1. WHEN Masada was thus taken, the general left a garrison in the fortress
to keep it, and he himself went away to Cesarea; for there were now no
enemies left in the country, but it was all overthrown by so long a war.
Yet did this war afford disturbances and dangerous disorders even in places
very far remote from Judea; for still it came to pass that many Jews were
slain at Alexandria in Egypt; for as many of the Sicarii as were able to
fly thither, out of the seditious wars in Judea, were not content to have
saved themselves, but must needs be undertaking to make new disturbances,
and persuaded many of those that entertained them to assert their liberty,
to esteem the Romans to be no better than themselves, and to look upon
God as their only Lord and Master. But when part of the Jews of reputation
opposed them, they slew some of them, and with the others they were very
pressing in their exhortations to revolt from the Romans; but when the
principal men of the senate saw what madness they were come to, they thought
it no longer safe for themselves to overlook them. So they got all the
Jews together to an assembly, and accused the madness of the Sicarii, and
demonstrated that they had been the authors of all the evils that had come
upon them. They said also that "these men, now they were run away
from Judea, having no sure hope of escaping, because as soon as ever they
shall be known, they will be soon destroyed by the Romans, they come hither
and fill us full of those calamities which belong to them, while we have
not been partakers with them in any of their sins." Accordingly, they
exhorted the multitude to have a care, lest they should be brought to destruction
by their means, and to make their apology to the Romans for what had been
done, by delivering these men up to them; who being thus apprized of the
greatness of the danger they were in, complied with what was proposed,
and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii, and seized upon them; and
indeed six hundred of them were caught immediately: but as to all those
that fled into Egypt (18)
and to the Egyptian Thebes, it was not long ere they were caught also,
and brought back, whose courage, or whether we ought to call it madness,
or hardiness in their opinions, every body was amazed at. For when all
sorts of torments and vexations of their bodies that could be devised were
made use of to them, they could not get any one of them to comply so far
as to confess, or seem to confess, that Caesar was their lord; but they
preserved their own opinion, in spite of all the distress they were brought
to, as if they received these torments and the fire itself with bodies
insensible of pain, and with a soul that in a manner rejoiced under them.
But what was most of all astonishing to the beholders was the courage of
the children; for not one of these children was so far overcome by these
torments, as to name Caesar for their lord. So far does the strength of
the courage [of the soul] prevail over the weakness of the body.

2. Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria, who presently sent Caesar word
of this commotion; who having in suspicion the restless temper of the Jews
for innovation, and being afraid lest they should get together again, and
persuade some others to join with them, gave orders to Lupus to demolish
that Jewish temple which was in the region called Onion, (19)
and was in Egypt, which was built and had its denomination from the occasion
following: Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish high priests fled
from Antiochus the king of Syria, when he made war with the Jews, and came
to Alexandria; and as Ptolemy received him very kindly, on account of hatred
to Antiochus, he assured him, that if he would comply with his proposal,
he would bring all the Jews to his assistance; and when the king agreed
to do it so far as he was able, he desired him to give him leave to build
a temple some where in Egypt, and to worship God according to the customs
of his own country; for that the Jews would then be so much readier to
fight against Antiochus who had laid waste the temple at Jerusalem, and
that they would then come to him with greater good-will; and that, by granting
them liberty of conscience, very many of them would come over to him.

3. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals, and gave him a place one
hundred and eighty furlongs distant from Memphis. (20)
That Nomos was called the Nomos of Hellopolls, where Onias built a fortress
and a temple, not like to that at Jerusalem, but such as resembled a tower.
He built it of large stones to the height of sixty cubits; he made the
structure of the altar in imitation of that in our own country, and in
like manner adorned with gifts, excepting the make of the candlestick,
for he did not make a candlestick, but had a [single] lamp hammered out
of a piece of gold, which illuminated the place with its rays, and which
he hung by a chain of gold; but the entire temple was encompassed with
a wall of burnt brick, though it had gates of stone. The king also gave
him a large country for a revenue in money, that both the priests might
have a plentiful provision made for them, and that God might have great
abundance of what things were necessary for his worship. Yet did not Onias
do this out of a sober disposition, but he had a mind to contend with the
Jews at Jerusalem, and could not forget the indignation he had for being
banished thence. Accordingly, he thought that by building this temple he
should draw away a great number from them to himself. There had been also
a certain ancient prediction made by [a prophet] whose name was Isaiah,
about six hundred years before, that this temple should be built by a man
that was a Jew in Egypt. And this is the history of the building of that
temple.

4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt of Caesar's
letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some of the donations
dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple itself. And as Lupus died a little
afterward, Paulinns succeeded him. This man left none of those donations
there, and threatened the priests severely if they did not bring them all
out; nor did he permit any who were desirous of worshipping God there so
much as to come near the whole sacred place; but when he had shut up the
gates, he made it entirely inaccessible, insomuch that there remained no
longer the least footsteps of any Divine worship that had been in that
place. Now the duration of the time from the building of this temple till
it was shut up again was three hundred and forty-three years.

CHAPTER 11.

CONCERNING JONATHAN, ONE OF THE SICARII, THAT STIRRED UP
A SEDITION IN CYRENE, AND WAS A FALSE ACCUSER [OF THE INNOCENT].

1. AND now did the madness of the Sicarii, like a disease, reach as
far as the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by trade
a weaver, came thither and prevailed with no small number of the poorer
sort to give ear to him; he also led them into the desert, upon promising
them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as for the other
Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and put tricks upon
them; but those of the greatest dignity among them informed Catullus, the
governor of the Libyan Pentapolis, of his march into the desert, and of
the preparations he had made for it. So he sent out after him both horsemen
and footmen, and easily overcame them, because they were unarmed men; of
these many were slain in the fight, but some were taken alive, and brought
to Catullus. As for Jonathan, the head of this plot, he fled away at that
time; but upon a great and very diligent search, which was made all the
country over for him, he was at last taken. And when he was brought to
Catullus, he devised a way whereby he both escaped punishment himself,
and afforded an occasion to Catullus of doing much mischief; for he falsely
accused the richest men among the Jews, and said that they had put him
upon what he did.

2. Now Catullus easily admitted of these his calumnies, and aggravated
matters greatly, and made tragical exclamations, that he might also be
supposed to have had a hand in the finishing of the Jewish war. But what
was still harder, he did not only give a too easy belief to his stories,
but he taught the Sicarii to accuse men falsely. He bid this Jonathan,
therefore, to name one Alexander, a Jew (with whom he had formerly had
a quarrel, and openly professed that he hated him); he also got him to
name his wife Bernice, as concerned with him. These two Catullus ordered
to be slain in the first place; nay, after them he caused all the rich
and wealthy Jews to be slain, being no fewer in all than three thousand.
This he thought he might do safely, because he confiscated their effects,
and added them to Caesar's revenues.

3. Nay, indeed, lest any Jews that lived elsewhere should convict him
of his villainy, he extended his false accusations further, and persuaded
Jonathan, and certain others that were caught with him, to bring an accusation
of attempts for innovation against the Jews that were of the best character
both at Alexandria and at Rome. One of these, against whom this treacherous
accusation was laid, was Josephus, the writer of these books. However,
this plot, thus contrived by Catullus, did not succeed according to his
hopes; for though he came himself to Rome, and brought Jonathan and his
companions along with him in bonds, and thought he should have had no further
inquisition made as to those lies that were forged under his government,
or by his means; yet did Vespasian suspect the matter and made an inquiry
how far it was true. And when he understood that the accusation laid against
the Jews was an unjust one, he cleared them of the crimes charged upon
them, and this on account of Titus's concern about the matter, and brought
a deserved punishment upon Jonathan; for he was first tormented, and then
burnt alive.

4. But as to Catullus, the emperors Were so gentle to him, that he underwent
no severe condemnation at this time; yet was it not long before he fell
into a complicated and almost incurable distemper, and died miserably.
He was not only afflicted in body, but the distemper in his mind was more
heavy upon him than the other; for he was terribly disturbed, and continually
cried out that he saw the ghosts of those whom he had slain standing before
him. Whereupon he was not able to contain himself, but leaped out of his
bed, as if both torments and fire were brought to him. This his distemper
grew still a great deal worse and worse continually, and his very entrails
were so corroded, that they fell out of his body, and in that condition
he died. Thus he became as great an instance of Divine Providence as ever
was, and demonstrated that God punishes wicked men.

5. And here we shall put an end to this our history; wherein we formerly
promised to deliver the same with all accuracy, to such as should be desirous
of understanding after what manner this war of the Romans with the Jews
was managed. Of which history, how good the style is, must be left to the
determination of the readers; but as for its agreement with the facts,
I shall not scruple to say, and that boldly, that truth hath been what
I have alone aimed at through its entire composition.

ENDNOTE

(1) Why
the great Bochart should say, (De Phoenic. Colon. B. II. ch. iv.,) that"
there are in this clause of Josephus as many mistakes as words," I
do by no means understand. Josephus thought Melchisedek first built, or
rather rebuilt and adorned, this city, and that it was then called Salem,
as Psalm 76:2; afterwards came to be called Jerusalem; and that Melchisedek,
being a priest as well as a king, built to the true God therein a temple,
or place for public Divine worship and sacrifice; all which things may
be very true for aught we know to the contrary. And for the word, or temple,
as if it must needs belong to the great temple built by Solomon long afterward,
Josephus himself uses, for the small tabernacle of Moses, Antiq. B. III.
ch. 6. sect. 4; see also Antiq. B. lit. ch. 6. sect. 1; as he here presently
uses, for a large and splendid synagogue of the Jews at Antioch, B. VII.
ch. 3. sect. 3.

(2) This
Tereutius Rufus, as Reland in part observes here, is the same person whom
the Talmudists call Turnus Rufus; of whom they relate, that "he ploughed
up Sion as a field, and made Jerusalem become as heaps, and the mountain
of the house as the high Idaces of a forest;" which was long before
foretold by the prophet Micah, ch. 3:12, and quoted from him in the prophecies
of Jeremiah, ch. 26:18.

(4) This
Berytus was certainly a Roman colony, and has coins extant that witness
the same, as Hudson and Spanheim inform us. See the note on Antiq. B. XVI:
ch. 11. sect. 1.

(5) The
Jews at Antioch and Alexandria, the two principal cities in all the East,
had allowed them, both by the Macedonians, and afterwards by the Romans,
a governor of their own, who was exempt from the jurisdiction of the other
civil governors. He was called sometimes barely "governor," sometimes
"ethnarch," and [at Alexandria] "alabarch," as Dr.
Hudson takes notice on this place out of Fuller's Miscellanies. They had
the like governor or governors allowed them at Babylon under their captivity
there, as the history of Susanna implies.

(6) This
Classicus, and Civilis, and Cerealis are names well known in Tacitus; the
two former as moving sedition against the Romans, and the last as sent
to repress them by Vespasian, just as they are here described in Josephus;
which is the case also of Fontellis Agrippa and Rubrius Gallup, i, sect.
3. But as to the very favorable account presently given of Domitian, particularly
as to his designs in this his Gallic and German expedition, it is not a
little contrary to that in Suetonius, Vesp. sect. 7. Nor are the reasons
unobvious that might occasion this great diversity: Domitian was one of
Josephus's patrons, and when he published these books of the Jewish war,
was very young, and had hardly begun those wicked practices which rendered
him so infamous afterward; while Suetonius seems to have been too young,
and too low in life, to receive any remarkable favors from him; as Domitian
was certainly very lewd and cruel, and generally hated, when Puetonius
wrote about him.

(7) Since
in these latter ages this Sabbatic River, once so famous, which, by Josephus's
account here, ran every seventh day, and rested on six, but according to
Pliny, Nat. Hist. 31. II, ran perpetually on six days, and rested every
seventh, (though it no way appears by either of their accounts that the
seventh day of this river was the Jewish seventh day or sabbath,) is quite
vanished, I shall add no more about it: only see Dr. Hudson's note. In
Varenius's Geography, i, 17, the reader will find several instances of
such periodical fountains and. rivers, though none of their periods were
that of a just week as of old this appears to have been.

(9) See
the representations of these Jewish vessels as they still stand on Titus's
triumphal arch at Rome, in Reland's very curious book de Spoliis Ternpli,
throughout. But what, things are chiefly to be noted are these: (1.) That
Josephus says the candlestick here carried in this triumph was not thoroughly
like that which was used in the temple, which appears in the number of
the little knobs and flowers in that on the triumphal arch not well agreeing
with Moses's description, Exodus 25:31-36. (2.) The smallness of the branches
in Josephus compared with the thickness of those on that arch. (3.) That
the Law or Pentateuch does not appear on that arch at all, though Josephus,
an eye-witness, assures us that it was carried in this procession. All
which things deserve the consideration of the inquisitive reader.

(10)
Spanheim observes here, that in Graceia Major and Sicily they had rue prodigiously
great and durable, like this rue at Macherus,

(11)
This strange account of the place and root Baaras seems to have been taken
from the magicians, and the root to have been made use of in the days of
Josephus, in that superstitious way of casting out demons, supposed by
him to have been derived from king Solomon; of which we have already seen
he had a great opinion, Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 2. sect. 5. We also may hence
learn the true notion Josephus had of demons and demoniacs, exactly like
that of the Jews and Christians in the New Testament, and the first four
centuries. See Antiq. B. I. ch. 8. sect. 2; B. XI, ch. 2. sect. 3.

(12)
It is very remarkable that Titus did not people this now desolate country
of Judea, but ordered it to be all sold; nor indeed is it properly peopled
at this day, but lies ready for its old inhabitants the Jews, at their
future restoration. See Literal Accomplishment of Prophecies, p. 77.

(13)
That the city Emmaus, or Areindus, in Josephus and others which was the
place of the government of Julius Africanus were slain, to the number of
one thousand seven hundred, as were the women and the children made slaves.
But as Bassus thought he must perform the covenant he had made with those
that had surrendered the citadel, he let them go, and restored Eleazar
to them, in the beginning of the third century, and which he then procured
to be rebuilt, and after which rebuilding it was called Nicopolis, is entirely
different from that Emmaus which is mentioned by St. Luke 24;13; see Reland's
Paleestina, lib. II. p. 429, and under the name Ammaus also. But he justly
thinks that that in St. Luke may well be the same with his Ammaus before
us, especially since the Greek copies here usually make it sixty furlongs
distant from Jerusalem, as does St. Luke, though the Latin copies say only
thirty. The place also allotted for these eight hundred soldiers, as for
a Roman garrison, in this place, would most naturally be not so remote
from Jerusalem as was the other Emmaus, or Nicopolis.

(14)
Pliny and others confirm this strange paradox, that provisions laid up
against sieges will continue good for a hundred ears, as Spanheim notes
upon this place.

(15)
The speeches in this and the next section, as introduced under the person
of this Eleazar, are exceeding remarkable, and oil the noblest subjects,
the contempt of death, and the dignity and immortality of the soul; and
that not only among the Jews, but among the Indians themselves also; and
are highly worthy the perusal of all the curious. It seems as if that philosophic
lady who survived, ch. 9. sect. 1, 2, remembered the substance of these
discourses, as spoken by Eleazar, and so Josephus clothed them in his own
words: at the lowest they contain the Jewish notions on these heads, as
understood then by our Josephus, and cannot but deserve a suitable regard
from us.

(16)
See B. II. ch. 20. sect. 2, where the number of the slain is but 10,000.

(17)
Reland here sets down a parallel aphorism of one of the Jewish Rabbins,
"We are born that we may die, and die that we may live.'

(18)
Since Josephus here informs us that some of these Sicarii, or ruffians,
went from Alexandria (which was itself in Egypt, in a large sense) into
Egypt, and Thebes there situated, Reland well observes, from Vossius, that
Egypt sometimes denotes Proper or Upper Egypt, as distinct from the Delta,
and the lower parts near Palestine. Accordingly, as he adds, those that
say it never rains in Egypt must mean the Proper or Upper Egypt, because
it does sometimes rain in the other parts. See the note on Antiq. B. II.
ch. 7. sect. 7, and B. III. ch. 1. sect. 6.

(19)
Of this temple of Onias's building in Egypt, see the notes on Antiq. B.
XIII. ch. 3. sect. 1. But whereas it is elsewhere, both of the War, B.
I. ch. 1. sect. 1, and in the Antiquities as now quoted, said that this
temple was like to that at Jerusalem, and here that it was not like it,
but like a tower, sect. 3, there is some reason to suspect the reading
here, and that either the negative particle is here to be blotted out,
or the word entirely added.

(20)
We must observe, that Josephus here speaks of Antiochus who profaned the
temple as now alive, when Onias had leave given them by Philometer to build
his temple; whereas it seems not to have been actually built till about
fifteen years afterwards. Yet, because it is said in the Antiquities that
Onias went to Philometer, B. XII. ch. 9. sect. 7, during the lifetime of
that Antiochus, it is probable he petitioned, and perhaps obtained his
leave then, though it were not actually built or finished till fifteen
years afterward.